Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Palani Palaniappan

Avinash S Phadatare

Scott Louis Frederick

Ryan Craig Harris

Jonathan Richard Young

John Kim

Naipaul Deo Ramoutar

Mark D Clauser

Masahiro Onoda

Edgardo Reyes-Crespo

Manikandan Baby Mony

Shinpei Matsumoto

Yizhou Fan

Sanjeev Gupta

Toshiyuki Kasai

Jesse Taylor

James E Ralph

Kristin Zwirlein

Bumpers and vehicles that include bumpers are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a bumper includes a bumper beam assembly, the bumper beam assembly including a beam, the beam including a front side that is oriented to face forward in a vehicle longitudinal direction, a bumper extension portion that is coupled to the beam and positioned at an outboard end of the bumper beam assembly, the bumper extension portion including a front side that is oriented face forward in the vehicle longitudinal direction, a top side that is oriented transverse to the front side, and a bottom side that is oriented transverse to the front side, and a reinforcement bracket that is coupled to the bumper extension portion, where the reinforcement bracket includes a front side that extends across the front side of the bumper extension portion.

Bumpers including a reinforcement bracket and vehicles incorporating the same

A bumper includes a bumper reinforcement beam and a reinforcement bracket positioned on a front side of the bumper reinforcement beam at an outboard end of the bumper reinforcement beam. An energy diverting bumper structure is positioned on a front side of the reinforcement bracket. The energy diverting bumper structure is connected directly to the reinforcement bracket and is connected indirectly to the bumper reinforcement beam through the reinforcement bracket.

Energy diverting bumper structures for bumpers and methods of connecting energy diverting bumper structures

Vehicle structures for dissipating and distributing energy associated with a collision are described herein. In one embodiment, a rim includes an inner flange and an outer flange that extend around a periphery of the rim, a rim wall that extends around the periphery of the rim and that extends between the inner flange and the outer flange in the vehicle lateral direction, a drop-well portion that is positioned between the rim wall and the outer flange in the vehicle lateral direction, where the rim wall comprises an increased thickness region that is positioned proximate to the drop-well portion, and where a maximum thickness of the increased thickness region is greater than a maximum thickness of the rim wall positioned outside of the increased thickness region, and at least one spoke extending radially inward from the drop-well portion.

Vehicle rims including deformable features and vehicles incorporating the same

Vehicle structures for dissipating energy associated with a collision are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a vehicle includes a side support that extends between a front suspension mount and a rear suspension mount of the vehicle. The side support includes a targeted energy absorption portion that defines a high-strength region of the side support. The vehicle also includes a cab mounting bracket coupled to the side support and extending outward from the side support. The cab mounting bracket includes a rearward attachment position on the side support and the rearward attachment position of the cab mounting bracket is positioned proximate to the high-strength region of the side support. The vehicle further includes a wheel assembly that is coupled to the front suspension mount and is positioned forward of the cab mounting bracket in a vehicle longitudinal direction.

Vehicles including targeted energy absorption structures

Growing community of inventors

Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America

Palani Palaniappan